Autoimmune diseases are a group of diseases in which the immune system reacts to the body’s own components and recognizes them as foreign. When an autoantigen is recognized, an immune response is initiated, which leads to the activation of autoreactive B cells and the production of autoantibodies. This results in the breakdown of immune tolerance. No known drug or therapy that would enable partial or complete remission of an autoimmune disease in a patient is currently available. Immunosuppressants or biological drugs such as monoclonal antibodies are mostly prescribed for treatment. In recent years, various cell-based therapies which utilize chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have gained attention due to their encouraging results and therapeutic potential in the treatment of autoimmune diseases. These therapies are based on the introduction of the CAR receptor primarily into T cells, thereby obtaining genetically modified T cells. CAR recognizes various components that are characteristic of the pathophysiology of a particular disease. CAR-T therapy was developed first and is almost a classic therapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Conventional CAR-T therapy targets B cells, but lacks the ability to distinguish between pathogenic and normal B cells, which can lead to systemic immunosuppression. To date, several CAR-based strategies have been developed, including CAR-Treg, CAAR-T, and CATCR-T ect. CAR-Treg cells modulate effector immune responses and help control excessive inflammation. The more advanced CAAR-T and CATCR-T therapies act more specifically compared to classic CAR-T therapy and Treg therapy, as they enable the selective targeting and elimination of only autoreactive B cells, while preserving normal B cell populations. Certain therapies have already been clinically tested, and the results are much more promising than those observed in the application of CAR-based therapies in oncology.
|
